Tea Party Group member Sharon Bergstein of Allentown Pa., and others, gather outside Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, Pa., Dec. 4, 2009, ahead of an appearance by President Obama. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

(Newser)
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Today’s screaming conservatives seem to have “quite happily abandoned the pretense of playing a constructive role in the debate over the nation,” ranting instead about paranoid delusions, writes Steve Almond in the Boston Globe. But under all that rage, there must be desires that drive conservatives, and in those things, maybe interested parties from across the ideological spectrum can find common ground.

When conservatives talk about the “culture of life,” for example, shouldn’t that be embraced as an endorsement of the need for better health care? When they praise small-town America, might that not represent support for locally owned businesses? “Beyond all the hollering, conservatives seek the same fundamental blessings as moderates and liberals: a safe, secure world for their children, the freedom to pursue happiness as they see fit.”

Should we follow the former national socialist model and put them in ghettos, maybe special camps? Maybe we should put them to work in the fields? Somebody's got to pick the cotton right? Contemplating if conservative are people...gee, which side is sounding unreasonable and hateful?

fiestygirl

Dec 9, 2009 12:07 PM CST

So it is your opinion, along with the rest of your liberal friends, that I and other conservatives are not people? WOW! This is beginning to make me feel like a Jew in Germany. Must I show my voter's registration card? My reading material? Will I and others get a type of microchip that will ID us as subhuman? Shortly thereafter there will be forced labor camps, political prisoners, death camps? Sound way out? Maybe but then again that is what many thought as they took their last breath of Zyclon gas during their "shower."